Life

Ministry of Music {Day 1}

/ Sara Vincent / Leave a comment

Music has always moved me, touched some deep place in my soul.  Perhaps that’s universal, I’m not sure.  God has often used music to speak to me and last week was no exception.  I thought this week I would share a few of the songs He has been using to encourage, comfort, and strengthen me recently.

This first one is from Tenth Avenue North:

(scroll to the bottom of the page to pause the piano music before playing the video)

I’m tired I’m worn
My heart is heavy
From the work it takes
To keep on breathing
I’ve made mistakes
I’ve let my hope fail
My soul feels crushed
By the weight of this world

And I know that you can give me rest
So I cry out with all that I have left

Let me see redemption win
Let me know the struggle ends
That you can mend a heart
That’s frail and torn
I wanna know a song can rise
From the ashes of a broken life
And all that’s dead inside can be reborn
Cause I’m worn

I know I need to lift my eyes up
But I’m too weak
Life just won’t let up
And I know that you can give me rest
So I cry out with all that I have left

Let me see redemption win
Let me know the struggle ends
That you can mend a heart
That’s frail and torn
I wanna know a song can rise
From the ashes of a broken life
And all that’s dead inside can be reborn
Cause I’m worn

My prayers are wearing thin
Yeah, I’m worn
Even before the day begins
Yeah, I’m worn
I’ve lost my will to fight
I’m worn
So, heaven come and flood my eyes

Let me see redemption win
Let me know the struggle ends
That you can mend a heart
That’s frail and torn
I wanna know a song can rise
From the ashes of a broken life
And all that’s dead inside can be reborn
Cause all that’s dead inside will be reborn

Though I’m worn
Yeah I’m worn

May God encourage you today.

For His Glory ~

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Week in Review {2013, Week 3}

/ Sara Vincent / Leave a comment

It’s been a quiet week here.  My brain felt as if it were wrapped in a thick blanket and my thoughts just felt all jumbled and non-sensical.  My attitude and behavior kind of betrayed that, as well.  So I have tried to stay quiet.

As we come to the end of the week and a couple days of warmer weather and sun have cleared my head a bit, I recognize the battle I am fighting with being content and finding joy where I am right now.  Discontentment tells me all the ways I would be happier if …. God’s word says “godliness with contentment is great gain.”

I don’t always enjoy being a home school mom and finding contentment there has been an on-going struggle.  I don’t think saying that makes me a bad home schooling mom.  I think saying that makes me honest.  I love my kids and I’m very happy with how they are learning and progressing in school, so that’s not the issue.  I love being at home with them and the wonderful time we are able to spend together.  It’s just that they’re always here.  Always.  So sending my kids off to school every day and having hours at a time to myself?  That sounds so luxurious!  But that’s not where God has me.  And I’m sure that’s not where God has me on purpose, because of the countless ways He uses my constant exposure to these human chisels to shape me – to make me more gracious, more patient, more selfless, and more like His Son.  I really wish relaxing on the beach could somehow have the same effect….

So if our educational options aren’t changing anytime soon (which they aren’t, because I still have a TON to learn about patience and selflessness), the only other option is to learn contentment.  And there’s really no fast track on that road, either.  It seems to be a matter of continuing to constantly say thanks, to see all as grace, to not consider my blessings burdens, and to continue to follow hard after the One who is perfecting each of us, day by day.  If I seek to be filled up by this job of home schooling, I’m going to be disappointed every time, because really it’s a daily emptying out, like much of mothering, and these kids aren’t responsible for filling up my empty places.  Only God can do that and He didn’t give us home schooling for that purpose.  He gave us home schooling to reveal how desperately we all need His grace and mercy every day and how empty we all really are without more and more of Him.

In other news, we received word this week that Amania’s passport is “in process”.  We are tentatively hopeful that we will have that in the next month or so, then it’s on to the US Embassy and her Visa.  So, maybe, maybe???, home this summer?  We’ll see.

School has taken until bedtime (or close to it) for the second week in a row for the younger two.  God bless them for their perseverance and sticking with it, but this has to change.  It’s a little ridiculous.  I’m praying through how to make things work and have some ideas, so we’ll see how next week goes.  We’ve gone from having too much free time on school days to having zero free time.  Surely there’s a balance in there somewhere?!

Emma’s having a couple of friends over tonight to (finally) celebrate her birthday (early December).  She’s kind to understand that her mama can’t handle birthday parties in the midst of Christmas craziness, so she always gets to wait until January.

Speaking of Emma, I’m pretty sure she and all her sisters are about to grow a lot.  All I hear about (or so it seems) is how hungry everyone is.  All.the.time.  And as a non-foodie-type, constant requests for food wear me out pretty fast.  Today, after being snapped at by a child who was apparently starving to death (and I was doing nothing about it!), I decided to come up with a paraphrase on Ephesians 4:26, “Be hungry and do not sin…”  It may also work for dieting husbands, but I wouldn’t know anything about that.  😉

And speaking of husbands, my very wise and wonderful man realized this week that this mama needs a little break, so he’s whisking me away for a quick overnight, some quantity quality time, and to finally see Les Miserables (woot!).  He’s definitely a keeper.

That’s the update around here.  Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!  May all that you do draw you closer to God and those you love.

For His Glory ~

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A New Year, A New Word….

/ Sara Vincent / Leave a comment

It’s 2013 and I’m often slow to come around on New Year’s resolutions and goals.  Early in my parenting I heard Elisabeth Elliott’s quote “Just do the next thing” and it has characterized how I’ve lived so much of the past twelve years.  I don’t seem to have the energy often to think very far ahead, so I simply do the next thing; the next chore, the next class, the next day.  When I try to plan too far ahead I find myself trying to live too much in my own strength, not resting in my Jesus.  Do the next thing keeps me kneeling.  And so, I don’t often have my goals and resolutions ready on January 1.  It’s often on January 1 I realize I need to think about such things and I mull and pray and ponder for a few days.

And while I don’t have my goals and hopes for the year lined out yet, I do think I have a word for the year – peace.  As we come off a year of political strife and the news is filled with fiscal cliffs and killings and so much uncertainty, as we look ahead at another year for the business and the turning of a calendar page always brings so much uncertainty, as we wait and wonder over trips to Haiti and how many will there be and will our daughter come home this year, peace seems like something we are going to need to be intentional about.  As we navigate these tween years with all these girls and one enters her teens this year, as we homeschool and do marriage and ministry and life together, peace is something there is never enough of.

In the midst of a wild and sin-torn world, can our home be a place of peace and refuge?  In the midst of the crazy and the unexpected and the mundane, can my heart overflow God’s peace?  In the face of uncertainty and doubt and fear, can we model peace to a peace-starved world?  Only through resting and trusting in Jesus….May the God of hope fill you with all joy and PEACE as you trust in Him. {Romans 15:13a}

That is the challenge and goal of 2013.  What is your one word for 2013?

For His Glory ~

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2012 – Year in Review

/ Sara Vincent / 1 Comment

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This year – it’s been a wildly fast one and yet the last five weeks have somehow seemed longer than the 47 before them.  As this year comes to a close, it only seems fitting to reflect on all that God has done in our lives in 2012.

We celebrated birthdays and anniversaries.  We traveled to Haiti, twice for each of us, and the oldest child made her first trip as well.  We wrapped up a really, really hard school year, soaked up the summer, and kicked off a new year which has been so much better thus far.  I painted more furniture than I can count and discovered this relatively cheap form of therapy and realized that I need a creative outlet far more than I knew.  We made more trips to the doctor’s office this year than all our other years of parenting combined, or at least it seemed that way.  We had two broken arms, a split open ear, pertussis, and a myriad of other minor illnesses.

We learned that the adoption process is wildly unpredictable and that a pregnancy with no due date is unfathomably hard to endure.  I started the year with a focus on attentiveness and found the word hope written all over it.  We took some little trips and focused on time as a family, preparing our hearts and our home for our Haiti girl to join us.  I experienced the hardest holiday season I have ever known and God gave me a glimpse of the desperate love He has for us and how He longs for us all to come home.

Oh, this year, it’s been a good one.  We have grown and changed and hopefully become more like our Jesus.  I am eager to open the door on 2013.  I’m cautiously hopeful we will be a family of seven by year’s end.  I’m trusting Him to continue to complete what He has started in each of us.  And I’m looking forward to where He leads us in the coming year.

Wishing you a blessed beginning of the coming year.  May 2013 be the best one yet.

For His Glory ~

When Christmas Seems Dark….

/ Sara Vincent / Leave a comment

My heart hangs heavy this Christmas season. The first I can remember that the joy is elusive and so many of the songs seem hollow. I think of children in orphanages who should be in homes. I think of families who continue to wait. I think of old friends who buried their son too soon and of all those children who won’t be there for Christmas this year in Connecticut. I think of officers slain and helicopters circling overhead.

And I wonder, did God’s heart hurt that first Christmas? Separated from His Son, did He ache just a bit, the way so many of us do? Did my Jesus, even as an infant, know He was not home and long to return there as He took His first breaths? Did the Spirit cry out, longing for the triune God to be one again?

I listen to hymns because I need to constantly be fed the rich truth they hold. I write Scripture on paper and chalkboards and screens to write it on my heart. And I ask for Jesus to be near. Not because I’m scared and want to escape, but because we need His presence until He returns and because the only way our hearts will ever truly be happy is when we are finally home.

And the conversation this week will be about gun control and mental health access but the conversation needs to be about the state of our souls. We were made by God and for God and denying His presence has left us with a nation of empty people, angry people, hurting people. We fill ourselves up with the world and find ourselves still wanting and we turn to hobbies or addictions or anything we can find to be filled but the emptiness is God-sized and nothing and no one else will do. But we don’t want to talk about God.

So, what are we to do? We are to shine like lights in the universe. We are to have peace in tribulation. We are to love those who hate. We are to give thanks when it seems there is nothing to say thank you for. Because living in God’s economy on the world’s time causes people to notice. And we have a God who identifies with us in our sufferings and sorrows and we have a God who is patient and wants everyone to know of His love for them.

Lord, you were born in the dark and you came to fill our dark places. And the world seems especially dark this Christmas. Won’t you come and fill us again? Make yourself known to those who desperately need you. Be near those who need your comfort and guidance. Give peace to those who are afraid and draw us all close.

For His Glory ~

~ Sara

A Grateful Catching Up….

/ Sara Vincent / 1 Comment

November 15 – A last minute girls’ night invite and actually accepting it….

No photo, but after a ridiculously long Thursday, so thankful for a friend who invited me to come hang out for a bit.

November 16 – A long drawn out date with my favorite….

Budget talks over margaritas, laughing long at the Tim Hawkins show, and discussing life and the future over dessert.  After a long month of busy and gone, this was just what my heart needed. 

November 17 – Tank tops in mid-November and a clean garage….

So thankful for time as a family to clean out our bordering-on-a-Hoarders-intervention garage and a beautiful day to boot.

I could post a picture of all of our junk…but I think I’ll just leave that to everyone’s imagination.

November 18 – A little girl and a long sheet of bubble wrap….

Oh the joy of bubble wrap.  Especially when it’s outside.

November 19 – For so much….

Another non-photo day, but still….

For a daughter who helps me at the grocery store when I’m dragging through sick, the week of Thanksgiving.  For another daughter who puts dinner in the crock pot while I’m away.  For the kind people at TJ Maxx who didn’t charge us for the $70 Le Crueset dish a certain child broke while scouring the racks for my favorite coffee.  For a husband who sends me to bed early.  For a warm drink as I snuggle under covers. And for a long night of sleep to help me recover.

November 20 – Crazy science experiments that entertain for hours and color foils for all the girls….

November 21 – Girlie buffet lunches and Thanksgiving feasting Part I (complete with princess dress up)…

I’ve been told boys don’t eat like this for lunch, but we loved it….Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug

November 22 – A holiday at home and a heart that overflows “thanks”….

Again, no photo from yesterday, but so thankful for this holiday at home every year.  What a gift it is to us to have a day to make our own traditions (and to have extra time to digest all of the Thanksgiving goodness before another feast this weekend). A late brunch and soup for dinner.  The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade on television and The Odd Life of Timothy Green at the cheap theater.  We did notice that our holiday tradition of seeing a movie on Thanksgiving Day has given us adoption-themed movies the past two years (Kung Fu Panda 2 last year), neither of which we knew were adoption-themed before we ever saw them.

Caught up for now; more to come tomorrow.

For His Glory ~

~ Sara

We all need grace…

/ Sara Vincent / 1 Comment

So this post has been popular in my Facebook feed today.  My husband even sent it to me in an email, sharing that he had been convicted too.  And rightly we should be challenged.  In this day of ever-present portable media, it can be hard to unplug from our gadgets and plug into real life.  But today it struck me different.

On a different day, I told my husband, I would probably feel convicted – or inspired, or challenged – too.  But today, I am that mom hiding behind the iPhone.  I am the mom who desperately needs a long, drawn out date filled with laughter and time to decompress (which – praise the LORD and Lord willing – I will get tomorrow). I’m the mom who has been “on” for more days than I can count and who may be just a *tad* hormonal this week.  This week I’m the mom who feels isolated and alone and like there’s no point in putting on make up because I have no where to go and I’m not going to see my husband until well after the kids have gone to bed.  Unless of course he sneaks home to change before evening meetings, which he did.  Then I’m kicking myself for looking like I do.

Yes, these years go fast.  As I see photos of my half grown daughter, I know the reality of the passage of time.  But let’s not over-romanticize these years.  They’re hard and they’re exhausting and they’re often very lonely.  And sometimes mom needs to check out for ten minutes just to keep going.

As one of our favorite parenting books says, “What are we characterized by?”  Are we characterized by an ever present screen between us and those we love, or are we characterized by being available and present, physically, mentally, and emotionally?  I’m the first to admit I can easily “check out” far too often.  My spirit is convicted and I have been prayerfully working through that bad habit of engaging a screen more than I engage my children. But some days it’s just a matter of making it through and much grace is needed on those days.

I’m a little raw today, if you couldn’t tell.  And at this point I’m not even sure I will click “publish” on this one, but if you’re reading it, I guess I did.  While I honestly don’t think the author of that post was condemning the mom on the iPhone, some of the commenters were less gracious.  So I guess my spin on it all is this – when you see that mom at the park on the iPhone, or the one wrangling two toddlers and an infant and running out of patience, or the one sitting at Starbucks reading a book while her son plays his iPod, give her some grace.  Say a prayer for her and for her kids.  Remember that some days are hard and long and, to use the quote I’ve seen floating around the internet, we are all fighting a hard battle.  She may not be a tuned-out mom.  Or she might.  Only God knows that.  Either way what she needs is grace, not guilt, encouragement, not exasperation, love, not lectures.

That’s my two-cents…

For His Glory ~

~ Sara

On clearing out the worry and putting on the armor….

/ Sara Vincent / 1 Comment

Monday morning dawned with to do list overflowing its page and calendar squares bulging til the end of the year and an irritable crankiness settled in like a heavy fog.  And I grumbled against that to do list and these children and how home schooling just takes so.much.time.

And this morning as I sat at His feet and soaked up His word, still battling the irritability and anxiety, I read in Streams,

Do not fret. (Psalm 37:1)

I believe that this verse is as much a divine command as “You shall not steal”.  But what does it mean to fret?  One person once defined it as that which makes a person rough the surface, causing him to rub and wear himself and others away.

And isn’t that what I’ve done all week, what I do every time I allow life to overwhelm and crowd out the most important things?  I become rough on the surface and wear us all away. So I pray about schedules and priorities and how to put first things first and not let the urgent become a tyrant in our lives.  And today is a new day and I choose to trust God with our schedule and our time.

In the early morning dark I also read this quote from Ann,

Life’s not hard because you’re doing anything wrong:  Life is a battle.  Put on your armor.

And it doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with schedules and surrendering our time to God, but it gives me strength today as I remember again that this life is not easy, it is a battle, so I should expect hard and I should expect challenges and I need to dress for war every day. But by surrendering my time, my expectations, my schedule to Him, I am freed to fight the battles He brings with both hands, rather than fighting one-handed while clinging fiercely to my own plans with the other.

And as I drove across town this week to get a tooth for a science project, I soaked in the silence but begrudged the trip out in the middle of busy.  But as I drove I talked to God and heard His Spirit whisper in the midst of my unhappy grumbling just give thanks.  Thanks for to do lists that will never be done.  Thanks for kids and projects that send you driving all over town collecting teeth or staying up helping with fundraisers or cleaning rooms you’ve helped clean a thousand times.  Thanks for the opportunity to die to myself and my own plans and to serve Christ by serving others, primarily my family.  And thanks for all the gifts He daily gives….

2154.  perfect fall days

2155.  a tour of the local fruit farm

2156.  apple cider slush

2157.  apple cider donuts

2158.  making happy memories

2159.  a pantry re-stocked

2160.  a couple of days off school

2161.  resting, relaxing, slowing where we can

2162.  thirteen miles run

2163.  a long, slow Saturday

2164.  laughing all evening long with old friends

2165.  seeing others give so generously to help the oldest go to Haiti

2166.  warm furnace turned on

2167.  girls in jammies all Saturday long

2168.  the Sunday crazy train and all it teaches me about grace and giving it abundantly

2169.  an honest, insightful letter from a daughter who struggles to find her place

2170.  a Spirit reminder to just say “thanks”

2171.  grocery day

2172.  fall riding in on a cool north wind

2173.  new shoes.  again

2174.  yummy new recipes and happily feeding my family

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I continue in my 31 days of prayer and I lift up prayers for a changed heart and eyes opened and a mind stayed on the truth of His Word.  I lift up prayers to continue to rest from the fretting and the wearing down of those around me and to daily put on my armor and die to myself and my plans.  And I lift up prayers that you would each know the realness of His presence in your life this week.

For His Glory ~

~ Sara

Runaway Heart

/ Sara Vincent / Leave a comment

She comes to me tear-stained and tired.  She says no one wants her here and no one cares, so she’s just going to leave.  She wants to run away and wasn’t I just saying the same thing yesterday?

I ask where she’ll go and how she’ll care for herself and what will she do.  And she says she doesn’t know but she’ll be safe because she has her Swiss army knife, an arrow, and God.

And I find her a little later, a couple houses down and I call her back and we talk and I hold her and ask her to just come inside and do her school and think this through a little more before she decides to go.  And she does and I try to go on with my day.

But isn’t this what we want to do when life gets hard?  We want to grab our water bottle and our arrows and run away.  Away from training, away from discipline, away from the tough love of our Father.  I realize it’s what I’ve always tried to do and I know I’ve always been a runner, even before I wore running shoes.  And this little girl, she has her mother’s heart: a heart that wants to escape and a heart that doesn’t like to do hard, a heart that wants to run away.

And my beloved sends me encouragement from the book of James, that book we just spent a year (or more) memorizing, that book I should know well but have somehow forgotten already.  He reminds me of chapter 1 and trials and temptations and counting it all joy.  And I ask myself, am I still running?  It is one thing to write about it and to say it to myself in the early morning quiet, but when it comes right down to it, and my child is carrying on irrational and the calendar is overflowing and it feels like this whole thing is going to come crashing down in one spectacular heap – am I then looking to God and saying, “Yes, Lord, even this – thank you.”  Am I running to my Jesus and saying thank you, even for this – for our daily stumbling and falling and facing imperfections?  Or am I picking up my weary heart and running the other direction – running to quietly nurse my wounds and hide myself away from the world and from the sinking feeling that I’m never going to get this right.

And I know I’m still a runner.  And my girl is a runner.  But I want us both to be running to Jesus, not running away.  And I’ve seen it on a few different blogs this week, how October started this year on a Monday and brought fall and a feeling of something fresh and why not commit to something for the 31 days of October.  And that Monday morning I knew what I’ve known since we came home from Haiti in February – I am to commit to pray.  Pray for my little family.  Pray for our hearts and our minds and our relationships and that we would all be children who run to their Father.

I don’t know what this will look like here online because it’s hard to get on consistently and write in the midst of school and home and life in general.  But will you join me in praying for our families for the remaining days of October – yours, mine, and all of those struggling around us?  May we lift ourselves and each other up to our Heavenly Father for strength, encouragement, and wisdom as we struggle to be lights in a darkened world.  And if we must run, “let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus.”  (Hebrews 12)  And as we think about running with perseverance, let us contemplate this definition that Matt shared with me:

Perseverance – a steadfastness in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success; continuance in a state of grace leading finally to a state of glory.

Steadfastness despite difficulty or delay in achieving success.  Was I not just talking to my friend this morning about how it feels like we keep having these same struggles and will we ever see progress?  Am I being steadfast regardless?  And, oh, to continue in grace!  Grace that overflows from the throne of God, grace that I must simply ask for and gather like manna because He supplies it new every morning, grace that leads to glory.

Lord, as we embark on 31 days of prayer, may you bless our efforts.  May you draw us closer to your heart.  Open our eyes to see our families the way you do.  Give us renewed love and affection for our children, our spouses.  Give us steadfastness and love and mercy and grace.  Protect us from the fiery arrows of the evil one and may all that we do bring You glory.  Give us runners hearts that run to you with wild abandon.  And may our love for you spread like fire to those around us.  Amen.

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For His Glory ~

~ Sara

Fighting the Battle and Facing the Enemy

/ Sara Vincent / 4 Comments

It’s Sunday morning and no matter how we prepare to avoid it, try to derail it, we board that weekly crazy train that sends the whole day into a tailspin.  Children bicker over shoes and outfits and hair accessories and through our own gritted teeth we say how much prettier they would look with a smile.  And on this particular Sunday I’m so thankful we’ve decided only to go to Sunday school, so I don’t have to referee the arguments during the sermon.

And it’s clear this day is going to be a doozy, because the arguments they pick up right where they left off after church and one child wails angry and another does everything in her power to aggravate.  One shuts herself up in her room and another is trying to figure out who to side with.  And I just want to run away.

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It’s Sunday night and we sit, the six of us, all crowded into our little sitting room, and we discuss angels and demons and the very real battle that is always taking place around us.  We discuss the full armor of God and how we are to dress ourselves, prepare ourselves, to engage in this battle, because even the most non-confrontational among us will be called to the front lines.

We talk first about the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of readiness given by the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit.  And then we talk about how we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, “but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12).  We talk about how our Enemy the Devil, he wants to distract us and confuse us and he does want us to wrestle against each other and how he does a victory dance every time he drives a wedge or builds a wall between us.  He doesn’t want us to love each other or be kind or obey or control our tongues and when we fight and bicker against each other he gains a foothold and he wins a battle for our hearts.  We talk about our instruction to be light to the dark and to help the poor and needy and to raise up children who love the Lord and how much Satan hates us for trying.  We affirm that we know Who ultimately wins the war, but these battles we fight every day are important and we can’t give up even one just because we’re too tired to fight.  We purpose to work together to fight this common enemy, rather than letting our enemy divide us.  We agree that God has given us each other to love and care for and protect, and to make us more like His Son, and that we are a team and we’re all working toward the same goal.

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And privately, we wonder do we make too much of this spiritual warfare thing.  No one talks about it much since our high school days and Frank Perretti books and perhaps it’s a bit too charismatic and maybe this is just life?  But in the past two years we have seen it, we have lived it, and my spirit knows somehow when it’s life and when it’s war.  The battle is real and Satan fights dirty and he knows the chinks in our armor and will aim his fiery arrows straight for us.  But we wait for a coming King, whose kingdom is not of this world, so why would the battles we fight be merely flesh and blood?

And in a small way that grows big, we can fight the battle of discouragement and discontent by daily listing His gifts – the good and the hard gifts.  Because if it all passes through His hand and it all has the ability to draw us closer, make us more like His Son, then is it not worth thanking Him for?  Is it not worth writing down and remembering?  Is it not worth a whispered, “Yes, Lord, even this….thank you.”?

2116.  cooler days

2117.  chilly nights with windows open

2118.  feet and legs that ache

2119.  hope that new shoes will help

2120.  continuing the hard struggle with one girl

2121.  an impromptu date night – a few hours away from the “sick ward”

2122.  God’s grace when I don’t deserve it

2123.  hope when I am discouraged

2124.  days that go horribly wrong

2125.  words of encouragement in the morning

2126.  hope overflowing

2127.  Haitian girl actually speaking to us over Skype

2128.  her silly, sweet smile

2129.  an unplanned “in service” day to give this sick mama time to rest

2130.  more rain

2131.  more coughing

2132.  never quite feeling caught up

2133.  an unexpected hour and a half in a quiet house

2134.  a lovely lunch hour run

2135.  laughing with my girls

2136.  heart burdened for one in particular

2137.  weeks that I’m happy just to make it through

2138.  a to do list too big to finish alone

2139.  a God who sees me

2140.  a beautiful fall Friday

2141.  a thirty minute nap

2142.  a home school soccer game

2143.  full moon hanging low over western sky

2144.  fog draped over grass

2145.  husband who gives up his morning workout to ride his bike with me while I run in early morning dark.

2146.  good friend who (literally) goes the extra mile (or two!) to help me finish my long run

2147.  jeans that feel looser

2148.  neighborhood cafe and incredible chips and guacamole

2149.  country dancing with everyone twenty years our senior

2150.  a good date night

2151.  family talks about spiritual warfare and  the battle we all really face

2152.  learning to fight together rather than fight each other

2153.  putting on the whole armor of God

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Praying that as you fight your own battles this week, you will be able to see His goodness in everything.

For His Glory ~

~ Sara